Posts tagged “Transocean”

The ongoing investigation into the cause of and reaction to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is seeing the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) continue its hard stand against the fuel company, with newly released court documents condemning BP for what it is calling “gross negligence.”

Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform that caused the spill, is also named by U.S. officials as being responsible alongside BP for a series of testing errors that proved to be costly after a methane gas explosion rocked the rig in question as it dug more than a mile deep off of the coast of Louisiana. The resulting damage would cause the rig to sink within 48 hours, leaving an open well that proceeded to gush more than 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over an 87-day span.

BP claims that the region has since exhibited signs of promising resilience, but the DOJ is urging the judge in the case to carefully weigh claims made by the oil company concerning the recovery of life in the affected area.

The following guest essay was written by David Whelpton. David is a private investor in the oil and gas industry. His blog is Knowledge and Investing. Below, David goes through the highlights of the report to the President on the Deepwater Horizon disaster, explaining the commission’s findings of what went wrong, and detailing some specific differences between BP and some other oil companies that may have led to a deficient safety culture. ————————– A Closer Look at The Commission Report on the Deepwater Horizon Disaster The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling has released its report to the President entitled, “Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling.” It is… Continue»